Type Parameters

Queues are useful for storing messages in the order they were received for sequential processing. Objects stored in a Queue<T> are inserted at one end and removed from the other.

The capacity of a Queue<T> is the number of elements the Queue<T> can hold. As elements are added to a Queue<T>, the capacity is automatically increased as required by reallocating the internal array. The capacity can be decreased by calling TrimExcess.

The following code example demonstrates several methods of the Queue<T> generic class. The code example creates a queue of strings with default capacity and uses the Enqueue method to queue five strings. The elements of the queue are enumerated, which does not change the state of the queue. The Dequeue method is used to dequeue the first string. The Peek method is used to look at the next item in the queue, and then the Dequeue method is used to dequeue it.

The ToArray method is used to create an array and copy the queue elements to it, then the array is passed to the Queue<T> constructor that takes IEnumerable<T>, creating a copy of the queue. The elements of the copy are displayed.

An array twice the size of the queue is created, and the CopyTo method is used to copy the array elements beginning at the middle of the array. The Queue<T> constructor is used again to create a second copy of the queue containing three null elements at the beginning.

The Contains method is used to show that the string "four" is in the first copy of the queue, after which the Clear method clears the copy and the Count property shows that the queue is empty.

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
class Example
{
publicstaticvoid Main()
{
Queue<string> numbers = new Queue<string>();
numbers.Enqueue("one");
numbers.Enqueue("two");
numbers.Enqueue("three");
numbers.Enqueue("four");
numbers.Enqueue("five");
// A queue can be enumerated without disturbing its contents. foreach( string number in numbers )
{
Console.WriteLine(number);
}
Console.WriteLine("\nDequeuing '{0}'", numbers.Dequeue());
Console.WriteLine("Peek at next item to dequeue: {0}",
numbers.Peek());
Console.WriteLine("Dequeuing '{0}'", numbers.Dequeue());
// Create a copy of the queue, using the ToArray method and the // constructor that accepts an IEnumerable<T>.
Queue<string> queueCopy = new Queue<string>(numbers.ToArray());
Console.WriteLine("\nContents of the first copy:");
foreach( string number in queueCopy )
{
Console.WriteLine(number);
}
// Create an array twice the size of the queue and copy the // elements of the queue, starting at the middle of the // array. string[] array2 = newstring[numbers.Count * 2];
numbers.CopyTo(array2, numbers.Count);
// Create a second queue, using the constructor that accepts an // IEnumerable(Of T).
Queue<string> queueCopy2 = new Queue<string>(array2);
Console.WriteLine("\nContents of the second copy, with duplicates and nulls:");
foreach( string number in queueCopy2 )
{
Console.WriteLine(number);
}
Console.WriteLine("\nqueueCopy.Contains(\"four\") = {0}",
queueCopy.Contains("four"));
Console.WriteLine("\nqueueCopy.Clear()");
queueCopy.Clear();
Console.WriteLine("\nqueueCopy.Count = {0}", queueCopy.Count);
}
}
/* This code example produces the following output:
one
two
three
four
five
Dequeuing 'one'
Peek at next item to dequeue: two
Dequeuing 'two'
Contents of the copy:
three
four
five
Contents of the second copy, with duplicates and nulls:
three
four
five
queueCopy.Contains("four") = True
queueCopy.Clear()
queueCopy.Count = 0
*/

Public static (Shared in Visual Basic) members of this type are thread safe. Any instance members are not guaranteed to be thread safe.

A Queue<T> can support multiple readers concurrently, as long as the collection is not modified. Even so, enumerating through a collection is intrinsically not a thread-safe procedure. To guarantee thread safety during enumeration, you can lock the collection during the entire enumeration. To allow the collection to be accessed by multiple threads for reading and writing, you must implement your own synchronization.